Third-grade pals exchange alohas

Every now and then an e-mail from President Barack Obama pops up on my computer, because I bought a T-shirt from his campaign last year before the California primary.

Lori Gilbert

Every now and then an e-mail from President Barack Obama pops up on my computer, because I bought a T-shirt from his campaign last year before the California primary.

The mail that Stockton chiropractor Scott Inoue received from the president is infinitely more personal. And memorable.

Inoue recently received a signed photograph from the president along with a personalized note of thanks.

The photo is not your standard president-in-a-tie shot that any well-wisher might receive.

Instead, it features two little boys - Inoue and Obama as third-graders - their arms around one another, shot with black-and-white film.

"We had a student teacher at that time, and it was her idea for everyone to pick someone to partner with and to have a picture taken," Inoue said.

He and "Barry" picked each other and posed for the photograph in their classroom at Noelani School in Honolulu.

Student artwork in the background shows it was taken around Christmastime. Inoue doesn't remember many of the circumstances, but he remembers them lining up for the photos that he believes were displayed on a classroom wall for the duration of the school year.

His classmate, Barry Obama, didn't last that long. His family moved to Indonesia sometime during the school year.

"I don't remember too much about him," Inoue said. "I just remember he was big. After he left, I always remembered this picture. I always would wonder whatever happened to him. I always assumed he moved to the States.

"When I was in high school, when I was a junior or senior, I remember I was listening to a high school basketball game on the radio and I heard the name Barry Obama, and I thought, 'That's what happened to him.' "

By then, Obama had returned from Indonesia and was playing basketball at Punahou, a private school in Honolulu.

Inoue lost track of "Barry," as he was known in his school days, until the future president became a U.S. senator from Illinois.

"I thought, 'I'll bet that's him.' By then he was Barack," Inoue said. "I researched his bio and found out he's from Hawaii and he's the same age, and I knew, yeah, that's him."

During the presidential election, a classmate had submitted the class kindergarten picture to Hawaii Business Magazine, which ran it. The adorable photo of 5-year-olds features Obama standing in the third row and Inoue seated in the front.

"I had totally forgotten we were in kindergarten together," Inoue said.

What he remembered was the picture of the two of them. He knew his mother had it in her house in Honolulu, because "she saves everything." Inoue had her send the photo to him, and he had copies of it made. He sent one to the magazine, which ran it earlier this year. Another copy is hanging in his office, prompting the obvious question from patients: "Who is that?"

Inoue sent a copy to Obama's office in Illinois, but got no response. After the election and inauguration, he sent a letter and a copy of the photo to the White House asking for an autograph. About six months later an envelope with a return address of The White House arrived.

"I knew right away what it was," Inoue said.

He didn't expect the cordial thank-you letter that accompanied the autographed photograph.

"That was a nice surprise," Inoue said.

Obama mentions his enduring love of Hawaii in the note, a feeling that is mutual with Inoue.

Although he left Hawaii in 1985 when he moved to Hayward to attend chiropractic college, Inoue speaks fondly of his childhood in the Manoa Valley, near the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

It was a neighborhood where people didn't have to lock their doors, and children mostly walked to school. The majority of residents were Japanese.

"(Obama) was possibly the only African-American in my class," Inoue said. "At that age you don't have so much of that prejudice. Everyone played with each other. I can't say what he went through, experience-wise. I think I read somewhere that when he went to Punahou, he had a bit of a hard time with those issues."

Obama, of course, breached racial lines when he became the first African-American to be elected president of the United States last November.

Inoue was among those who voted for him, and not, he said, because he had known him as a child.

"Every time I hear him speak, it almost brings tears to my eyes," Inoue said. "It's so powerful."

The president's impression on Inoue began long before his run for the presidency, though. It began when he was a child, taller than the other kids in the class, friendly to everyone.

The image is seared in Inoue's mind. And in a cherished photograph proudly hanging in his office.